Tuesday, 27 November 2012

Clarks CMD-8 Mechanical Disc Brake Review - Why?

I wore through a rear rim a few months back, and had a rim blow out when tire pops out from cracked rim where the beading becomes disengaged.

Now when I apply the brakes and hear the grinding noises, I cycle on country lanes mostly and can not avoid getting muddy rims, I wonder how long before it happens again.

By using a disk brake I am transferring the wear to the disk, rather than the rim. £10 replacement vs £60 replacement.

So why, long term costs. It does not stop the bike any quicker.

Clarks CMD-8 Mechanical Disc Brake Review - Fitting

I have a lot going on on the rear stay of my bike. Mudguards, Pannier Rack and now a disk brake caliper. As you can see from the above picture I have bent the mudguard stay to fit around the caliper. A trickier problem was fitting the pannier rack. . . . .

I used a piece of builders banding strap doubled over, any piece of bent metal would surface so long as it has holes in the right place. Obviously this is not as secure as a direct attachment to the rear stays, but it not too bad. I carried 10 kg in the pannier on the bracketed side since fitting with no dramas.

The disk brakes are fairly easy to set up. I have never fitted a disk brake before it took me 3 goes, loosening a readjusting until they were just right.

Clarks CMD-8 Mechanical Disc Brake Review - Money Money Money

Prices range from around £15 to £25. I bought mine off eBay with no packaging for £10. I have read good reviews of this product.

Clarks CMD-8 Mechanical Disc Brake Review - Performance

The performance of these disk brakes is about the same as a v brake. They are no better, but they a so silent. No rubbing noises even when braking. So if you are thinking of changing for the sake of performance then don't bother.

Clarks CMD-8 Mechanical Disc Brake Review - Conclusion

I want to prolong the life of my rims, and I didn't want to have to buy new levers. These Clarks CMD-8 Mechanical Disc Brakes have proved to meet these requirement at low cost. I will update in a few months or when the pads wear out.

Update: 22/12/12

Be VERY careful when lubricating you chain, and rear mech etc. If you have used spray lubes in the past I would recommneded switching to bottled lubs, to avoid getting lube on the disk rotor or pads. Otherwise your disk brakes will lose power when braking.

Note to Clarks: The return spring on the brake arm could do with being a bit stronger.

Turn off Loud Beeps on IBM Lenovo T60 - Guide with Pictures

Turn off Loud Beeps on IBM Lenovo T60 - Why?

If you want to survive to a ripe old age, then random loud noises will not help. In fact if you were shaving with a cut throat razor, and your T60 low battery alarm goes off, then you may accidentally kill your self.

Turn off Loud Beeps on IBM Lenovo T60 - Where?

In the bios. Press blue button when you see the lenovo logo soon after switch on. The press F1.

Enter config, top of the list (press enter) key down to alarms . . . disable or enable which ever alarms you find annoying.

Friday, 23 November 2012

Grand Western Canal Breach - Deatails

On the 21st of November 2012 the northern embankment of the Grand Western Canal near Halberton in Devon collapsed due to overt topping after heavy rain. Approximately a 20 meter section of the 10 - 15 meter high embankment wash completely washed away. Emergency works were carried out by Southwest Highways amongst others to dam the canal to prevent its draining over its entire length.

Grand Western Canal Emergency Works

Grand Western Canal Breach Point from Towpath

Grand Western Canal Breach Point from Adjacent Field

Update: 01/07/2013

Southwest Highways have been awarded a £3 million contract to fix the breach. What a lot of money.

Monday, 12 November 2012

My aging IBM T40 thinlpad has been a good old sport for the last 3 years, but the battery life is becoming an issue, so upon another impending rteinstall of the OS I thought I would try and put a SD to 44 pin IDE Adaptor in it, witha high speed SD card.

It is a nice idea to be able to upgrade an aging laptop for £7. But in my case this was a wasted £7! I have tried this adapter (KTC chip) witha 4GB Sandisk Ultra (Class 6) and a 8GB Kingston (Class) No Joy.

So would I recommend this product. No. Buy a secound hand IBM T60 and get a proper SSD, more expensive by far. But Infinatlt better value . . .